Yes, it does. It sure as hell isn't a success right now, so it must be a failure. They can't even play the "used to win a format war" card that Sony had with the PS3, as nebulous as the benefit of that victory was.

All Wii U has going for it is that it will have a 4 million unit or so head start on install base and a more established software library when the competition shows up, which is an advantage that helped the 360.

Debatable, and it definitely helped the 3DS. The U's year lead will allow it to iron out the kinks before its competition comes in.

the semantics on this thread about the meaning of failure are terribly annoying. The main point missing in the debate of its meaning is tense. A failure is something or someone who has failed. The definition examples are past tense, as in "His career ended in failure" or "The campaign was a failure". "ended" and "was" are key words there when using the term properly. To day the campaign IS a failure would be incorrect; you would say the campaign is FAILING.

And so that's where we are with Wii U. It is failing, not a failure, as it is still in the middle of its attempt to do what it is made to do. If you put a time frame on it you could say its first 8 months on the market WAS a FAILURE.

Personally, I would say that Wii U was a failure in terms of meeting its initial goals from Nintendo. I would say it was a success in terms of creating a head-start userbase that is along the lines of what XB360 enjoyed. It failed to match the Wii's initial draw, but succeeded to match the PS360 launch.

We can't call the Wii U a failure until it has failed, or at least until it has no hope of success. I'll leave the judgement open on it until MarioKart 8 and the talked about "innovative" blue ocean games are released for the system during the next 12 months, and when it gets its first price cut. PS360 didn't take off until the price was dropped (as with many systems) and MK8 is Nintendo's biggest draw. If Nintendo is able to come up with something that uses the gamepad in a way that makes it a must-have for the fringe audience, then the system could take off. If these things happen and the Wii U is still selling poorly, I would confidently say that it WILL BE a failure. Right now it's too soon, I wouldn't make the call until about 1 year from now.

Bam.

The Wii U is failing at this time, but it might rise above and be ok by the time the 8th gen is over. Or not. Predicting the future is a fools job.

if the others release in mid november, it should be a 6 million head start.

"Failure" is too definitive, haters stretch "failing" up to meaning "failure", we need a semantic solution: I suggest we coin a neologism, "FAILISH".     O-)  

A.) It's a failure as the successor to the Wii in terms of being a blockbuster phenomenon in bringing in casuals basically on concept alone (motion controller + Wii Sports = sold out for 2 years). Only something that is the equivalent to Wii Sports for 2013/14 will, and Nintendo Land + asymetric gaming thus far has utterly failed in that respect. All the Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Smash Bros. Mario Kart, etc. games aren't going to change this or make up for it.

B.) It will improve its situation to GameCube-N64 levels once the price is lowered and more games out, because that will at least bring in the Nintendo faithful. So it won't be this level of absolute failure for much longer; the situation will improve.

Whether or not you think think point B warrants calling the system overall a success is basically up to you.

Nintendo's main focus with this console was to win back thirth party support and get back into favor with all gamers from casual to hardcore. From that perspective it's a complete faillure. It also seems to have lost all the casual appeal they hade with the Wii. Wii-U sales will pick up some when big Nintendo titles release and Nintendo will make money off it, but it will never be a massive success.

160k in the last quarter. Now it is the best time to call it.